My little family is a huge fan of Brinner, and we have it at least once a week. We take waffles very seriously and have instituted a weekly tradition called “Waffle Wednesday.”

I found out this morning that tomorrow is the first day of what’s called “Texas Go Vegan Week” put on by the Vegan Society of Peace. It’s also currently the beginning of fall… pumpkins… warm, yummy food…

To celebrate all the above in one meal, I present to you this recipe: Cream Cheeze Filled Pumpkin Pie Waffles! This recipe is adapted from Robin Robertson’s Pumpkin Pie Pancakes from her book, Vegan Planet.

For the Waffles:

1 ½ c. all purpose flour (we used Krusteaz gluten free blend)

1 Tbsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. ground cinnamon

½ tsp. pumpkin pie spice

2 c. nondairy milk (we used Silk almond coconut blend)

1/3 c. canned pumpkin puree

3 Tbsp. maple syrup

2 Tbsp. melted coconut oil

For the Cream Cheeze Filling:

1/4 C. nondairy cream cheese alternative (we used Tofutti)

1 Tbsp. Maple syrup

1 tsp. coconut oil

Preheat your waffle iron.

To make the waffles: Mix together the dry ingredients in a large bowl: the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice. Set aside.

Using the instructions specific to your waffle iron, pour ¾ the required amount of batter on the waffler (our waffle iron uses a ¾ cup scoop so I put ½ cup in the waffle iron). Spoon about 1-2 Tbsp. of the cream cheese mixture directly onto the batter you just put down. Now top the cream cheese mound with the remaining ¼ required amount of batter (ours was ¼ cup). Close the waffle iron and cook until finished (you know your waffler).

Top finished waffles with crushed toasted pecans and buckets of maple syrup! This goes extremely well with scrambled tofu for a complete meal.

I was recently involved in a community afghan making project. It was incredibly satisfying and inspiring. What a simple and effective way to help out. This blog is asking crocheters to donate 1 granny square a month to make blankets for charity. Granny squares are so easy and my favorite thing to crochet. I’m really excited to have found this blog.

Wool dryer balls are awesome. They are a great natural alternative to liquid fabric softener and dryer sheets. The harmful chemicals in commercial fabric softeners can cause central nervous system damage, among other potential horrors! Wool dryer balls soften your clothes and reduce static cling in your laundry without any harmful side affects (unless of course you’re allergic to wool, then I most definitely wouldn’t use them). Wool dryer balls are a very popular topic people are searching for, and most of the traffic on my blog have come here through search engines looking specifically for knit and crochet patterns to make them. In my wool dryer ball post, I did not include the pattern and I feel bad that I wasn’t helpful to the people coming here looking for them.

The patterns to these dryer balls have been bumping around in my head for years and it’s about time I get them out into to world.

One commenter in the wool dryer ball post suggested going to the big box craft stores with a coupon or during a sale and stocking up on Fisherman’s wool for making the dryer balls.

You’ll need to start your project by making a ball of yarn, wound very tightly. This is a fantastic project to use up leftovers in your yarn stash. Any 100% wool yarn will work, in any weight for the wound up ball that goes inside the knit or crochet pouch.

When the ball is 9 1/4 inches in circumference, thread the yarn tail onto a tapestry needle and secure the ball together. It doesn’t have to be seamed very much, just enough that it won’t be coming apart inside your knit or crochet felted dryer ball pouches.

I’ve done quite a bit of felting and I have found Knit Picks Wool of the Andes to be the best felting yarn ever. It felts up so easily, I swear this is what it was meant to do. I have had success with other brands of 100% wool, just make sure you aren’t using superwash wool.

Now, I’m going to be very direct and honest here. Felting is hard work! Some of the felting instructions I’ve read say something along the lines of, “Oh just throw your project in the washer and it will come out felted!” I have not found this to be true even once. I have a front load washer so felting is more of a challenge and I have no doubt it is easier in a top loading, agitating washer.

Here’s how I felted my dryer balls. First, I boiled them. I let them boil for a few minutes, then with tongs, plunged them into ice cold water. I put them back in the boiling pot of water for a few minutes, then once again, plunged them into ice cold water. I repeated this once more. I squeezed them out, put them in a mesh laundry bag, tied the slack, then put them in the washer on hot/ cold cotton cycle. I repeated this entire process (boiling and washing) 3 times before they were felted to my liking. My balls ended up being 10- 10.5 inches in circumference after all the felting. Both knit and crochet versions came out about the same size.

Another question I get is how many balls to use? I personally like 6-8 balls in my dryer at a time. I’ve heard of people using up to 12 and as few as 2. It’s really up to you!

The crochet pattern is easier and faster to make, but harder to felt. The knit pattern takes longer to make, but easier to felt. I am glad I got to do both. It was a really fun adventure.

This pattern is crocheted in the round, amigurumu style so there will be no joining and chaining. Just keep crocheting in a continuous spiral. You’ll need a stitch marker to indicate the beginning of the round.

You will need to make a wool ball of yarn that is 9 1/4 inches in circumference to place inside the outer pouch. See more information here.

This is the pattern for the pouch that will go over the wound up balls of yarn to make felted wool dryer balls. You will need to start this project by making a ball of yarn 9 1/4 inches in circumference.

Cut yarn, leaving a 6 inch tail. Thread yarn tail onto a tapestry needle, and draw it through the live sts. Pull tight to close the pouch. Secure and weave in yarn ends. Felt as desired, or for more information, click here.

I wanted to make my 4 year old son a new hat, so I gave him a pattern book to look through. He seemed to get a little frustrated that he couldn’t find exactly what he wanted, so we searched on Ravelry for patterns together. Again, he was frustrated he couldn’t find exactly what he wanted.

I asked him to tell me what he was looking for. He told me he wanted a hat with red, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, gray, and white stripes. I got out a huge pile of yarn and had him pick out the colors for his hat. He piled up 9 balls of yarn and said those were the colors he wanted. We worked together to arrange the colors.

We ended up with a Roy G Biv rainbow plus a few more colors. What follows is the pattern to the cheerful hat my sweet 4 year old came up with.

Pattern Gauge: 5 stitches and 7 rounds per inch in stockinette stitch

Tools:

US 5 16 inch circular knitting needle (or size needed for gauge)

US 7 16 inch circular knitting needle (or size needed for gauge)

US 7 DPNs or US 7 40 inch circular needle for magic loop

Stitch marker

Tapestry needle for weaving in ends

Yarn:

I used 9 colors of worsted weight yarn, most of which were Cascade 220 and Knit Picks Wool of the Andes. The sequence for the hat was red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, white, gray, black. This is an excellent project for using up all those obscure yarn ball leftovers so you can use whatever worsted weight yarn you have on hand. You will need approximately 120 yards.

Directions:

With smaller needles and red yarn, cast on 96 stitches. Place marker to indicate beginning of round. Work K2 P2 ribbing for 8 rounds.

I started the season with an amigurumi tree ornament set. They were not on the tree for long, for the most part they could be found in the kids beds or their fists. I am not putting them away yet. They’re still being loved on and I love that.

When I asked my 2 year old what she wanted for Christmas, she was very sure she wanted me to make her a kitty. She never changed her mind… and she kept asking about it. She was very pleased (and so was I) with the way it turned out.

When I asked my 4 year old what he wanted, he took a long time to decide. We looked through lots of toy patterns on Ravelry together and finally he decided on a very specific giraffe. I like this little guy.

The kids got new hats and their dolls got hats to match.

I also made my husband a new hat.

All these projects were really satisfying because they were quick, I resolved my long lived issue with crochet, and it was all made with yarn I had on hand. Yay for stashbusting!